Help and Resources

1. Purchasing Domain Names

1. Purchasing Domain Names

To complete the purchase, click on Buy next to the desired domain name in the Results Grid. You will be redirected to the marketplace holding the domain name and will need to follow their purchasing steps. For example, in the image below Buy is clicked next to the first listed Dynadot domain name.

The page will be redirected to the marketplace website (Dynadot in this example) for completing the purchase after you have clicked on Buy next to the domain name.

You will need to sign in with an existing account or create a new account with the selected marketplace to complete a bid or purchase.

2. What do the columns mean?

2. What do the columns mean?

General Indicators

Page Rank (Primary Indicator)When a site is updated with new content, it helps Google's spiders determine the frequency of visits. This amount is used to establish if the site is a valuable source of ever changing information. Domains with higher page rankings are spidered and ranked more often.

Domain Age (Primary Indicator)The domain age indicates how long a domain has been active. The longer a domain has been active, the more it is trusted as a good source. A new site is often placed in the 'Google Sandbox' for a specific timeframe and is not indexed at all. This keeps spammers from creating fake sites just for indexing purposes and to gain higher ranking. The waiting period is designed to curtail the use of bogus sites for ranking increases.

Domain age is determined by the number of unbroken years the domain has been registered. Unfortunately, if there is a period in which the domain lapsed and was renewed again, the domain age is calculated from the renewal date, not the original registration date.

Yahoo Backlinks (Primary Indicator)Yahoo uses backlinks (links to your site from another) to determine the worthiness of the site. The more backlinks your site has the higher the value. This is a highly respected indicator because Yahoo's search engine is exceptionally good at detecting backlinks.

Fake Page Rank (Secondary Indicator)This indicator is not extremely helpful if used alone; however, when used in combination with the Page Rank indicator above, it helps determine if the page rank is real.

This is how it works:

When a site is spidered by Google, it may rank higher because it is automatically forwarded to another site (like amazon.com) which is rich in content, unfairly affecting the ranking. To help prevent this scenario, the Fake Page Rank crosschecks the spider to make sure the site is not bogus.

DMOZ Listed (Secondary Indicator)A site is far more trusted if DMOZ.org has a backlink to it. This can increase rankings and result in more pages being indexed.

Yahoo Directory Listed (Secondary Indicator)If the Yahoo Directory has a backlink to the site, it is considered more reliable and trustworthy as well. Part of the reason is that owners must pay to be listed here. The financial commitment adds legitimacy to the site.

Google Directory Listing (Secondary Indicator)This can affect trust (and value as a result); however, there are not many metrics available to support its viability or effectiveness as a rank indicator.

Google Index (Secondary Indicator)Look for this indicator if you want to know how many pages on the website are currently indexed in the Google search engine. A zero value means there is a good chance that Google has banned the domain for some reason. A value between 1 and 100,000 means the site has not been banned.

Google Backlinks (Secondary Indicator)Like Yahoo, the more backlinks present, the better it is for the website. The search engine will spider the site more often because it is perceived as having value.

The actual data here can be misleading. Often, a popular site will come back with a very low value. This happens because it is thought that Google does not divulge this information or that they are simply reluctant to share it.

Alexa Backlinks (Secondary Indicator)This is the next best place to validate the number of backlinks and it is always a good idea to check more than one source for this information. Sometimes Yahoo shows a higher score for backlinks than Alexa. A variation in scoring
for backlinks should raise a few red flags. MajesticSEO Backlinks is another good source for checking backlinks.

Backlinks from .edu and .gov (Secondary Indicators)Since these are managed by the government and educational institutions, any backlinks to your site are perceived as having a high level of value because these entities have determined that the site is worthy of a link.

Backlinks from .edu and .gov (Secondary Indicators)Since these are managed by the government and educational institutions, any backlinks to your site are perceived as having a high level of value because these entities have determined that the site is worthy of a link.

Traffic Indicators

Alexa Popularity & Alexa Reach (Primary Indicator)Alexa ranks site traffic based on sites around the world. For example, amazon.com ranks (at the time of this writing) 19th in terms of worldwide traffic and 5th in U.S. traffic. Nearly 300,000 different sites are linked to it.

Fake Alexa (Secondary Indicator)This indicator validates the Alexa traffic score by crosschecking the domain to make sure it is NOT forwarding to another domain name with a higher ranking, thus skewing the rank deceitfully.

Quantcast Traffic (Primary Indicator)Quantcast rates the amount of U.S. traffic going to a domain name on a monthly basis. It is not used as an internal scoring system and the information is public. The representation is much smaller than other sites, since the database of names is not all encompassing.

Number of Registrations with Other Extensions (Primary Indicator)Archive.org has been keeping historical records since the mid-1990s. The more times your site has been archived over the years, the more likely it has been changed and updated. This should increase its value.

Domain Sales Indicators

Google Results (Primary Indicator)This tool measures the number of results returned by Google for a specific domain and is useful for evaluating the popularity of a domain name. Although, this indicator was widely used in the past, it has become less important today because most of the good names have already been registered.

Google Results without the Extension (Primary Indicator)Similar to the tool above, it gauges the value of a domain based on how many results are returned by Google and can be used to determine the keyword popularity of a name. For instance, if people are searching often for "this keyword and that keyword," then "keyword" may be a valuable domain name.

Google Results without the Extension (Primary Indicator)Six key TLDs are tracked -- .com, .net, .biz, .org, .info and .us -- to see how many are being used in conjunction with the same registered domain name. For example, if yourdomainname.com, .net and .org are taken, it may be prudent to purchase.biz and .info as they may have value on the market, due to its popularity in other places.

Word Tracker SearchesUtilizing word tracker searches to determine the potential success of a term is another great tool. Overture.com used to be a great place to do this, but since it was purchased by Yahoo, it has virtually disappeared. Try wordtracker.com as a good substitute. It contains a smaller database, but it can give you a reasonable approximation of how often a word is searched.

Google SearchesThis indicator works like Word Tracker; however, the results are more current because it taps directly into Google's database.

Google Cost-Per-ClickIf you want to know how much an advertiser is willing to pay for a domain, Google cost-per- click can provide you with this information and is a great way to determine the value of a domain. For example, if an advertiser is willing to pay 'X cents or dollars per click' for "this set of keywords", then thissetofkeywords.com may be a smart domain name to purchase.

Google Clicks-Per-MonthGoogle clicks-per-month tells you how many times a search term has been clicked. Highly searched terms show that people may be interested in visiting a domain that has the same name.

The last two indicators work together to assess the value of a term. A word that gets $15 a click but only 4 clicks a month may be more valuable than one that receives 100 clicks per month at 10 cents per click.

Google AdvertisersAdvertisers bid on search terms and Google Advertiser will give the total number of advertisers bidding for a particular word. This can be a key indicator of a brandable term that will be more popular and valuable.

There are many ways to determine if a domain has potential for success. Use several indicators to help narrow your search. Check the amount of traffic and sales a term receives. The page rank and how many times visitors click on or search for a term or phase are important as well. These indicators will help to get you closer to choosing a domain that will work for you.

After you have picked a name and extension, it is time to put your plan into action and get the domain name registered before someone else does.

3. Setting Up Autobidder

3. Setting Up Autobidder

An Autobid Feature is available for automatically bidding through certain marketplaces. To access this feature, click on Account in the upper right hand corner of the main page.

After the Account Setup Page opens, click on AutoBidder to access the setup form for this feature.

The Autobidder Feature supports instant bidding for the Godaddy, Snapnames, and Namejet marketplaces. Enter your username, password, and any additionally required information for the desired marketplace. Then click on the Save Button to complete the Autobidder Setup.

4. Editing Personal Information

4. Editing Personal Information

Only your first name is required when registering to use FreshDrop; however, additional information can be entered by accessing your account. Click on Account in the top right corner of the main page to access the form for editing your Personal Information.

You can use this form to enter desired basic information such as your first name, last name, gender, or birthday.

An address section is available for entering additional contact information. This portion of the form allows you to enter a street address, city, state/province, country, zip code, and phone number.

Enter an Email Address and then confirm it to receive notifications by email. This field automatically defaults to the email entered during registration, but can be altered at any time.

Click on the box labeled “Receive promotional emails from third party advertisers” to receive information via the entered email address and then click on the Save Button to store your entered or changed personal information.

5. Changing Your Password

5. Changing Your Password

FreshDrop provides the ability to change your password at any time. Click on Account in the upper right hand corner of the main page to access this feature.

Then click on Change Password in the Account Setup Page to access the form for changing your password.

Enter your Current Password, enter a new password in the Choose a Password Field. and then re-enter the new password to confirm it. Click on the Save Button when finished to complete your password change.

6. Logging Out of FreshDrop

6. Logging Out of FreshDrop

Click on Logout in the upper right hand corner to log out of the account once you are finished using FreshDrop. Logging out of the application is important since it prevents others from accessing your information from the utilized computer or mobile device.

7. Contacting Us

7. Contacting Us

To send feedback to our representatives, click on Contact Us in the upper right hand corner of the main page.

We appreciate your interest in FreshDrop and hope you continue to use our application to find the hottest and most useful expired domain names. Your feedback is always welcomed as we strive hard to make consistent improvements to our search tool.